Cleveland @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 3, 2018 ) Toronto 106, Cleveland 112

The Cleveland Cavaliers have knocked the Toronto Raptors out of the playoffs the last two years but the Raptors are finally the favored team and hope to play like it when the teams begin their Eastern Conference semifinals matchup Tuesday night with Game 1 in Toronto. The Cavaliers won the conference final in six games over the Raptors in 2016 and swept a semifinals meeting last season en route to their third consecutive conference crown.

LeBron James averaged 36 points in that sweep for Cleveland and carried his squad through a seven-game battle with the Indiana Pacers in the first round by pouring in 34.4 per game, including 45 in the 105-101 clincher Sunday. "This is a different year," James told ESPN. "It's going to be challenging for us. So that's our first challenge. We'll see what happens." Toronto, the top seed in the East, took six games to get rid of the Washington Wizards in the opening round led by DeMar DeRozan, who averaged 26.7 points and feels that his team is finally ready to topple Cleveland, even if the roster is roughly the same. "Sometimes you have to keep it together, because there's nobody better than the guys you've failed with," DeRozan told reporters. "You might not have accomplished the goal, you do understand how to regroup."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, TSN (Toronto)

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: James played 41.2 minutes per game in the series with Indiana after playing all 82 games during the regular season, and remarkably he is showing no ill effects of the heavy workload. "That's why you play the minutes throughout the course of the season the way he does: When these types of situations happen, you're prepared for them," coach Tyronn Lue told the media. "So he's used to playing 41, 42 minutes and being able to take it with his body and still be able to produce. A lot of guys, they get in the playoffs, they're not used to playing that many minutes, and then it being a high-intensity atmosphere, it's kind of hard for those guys to perform." James, who admitted after Sunday's win that he was "burnt right now," produced 29.3 points, eight assists and 6.7 rebounds in three matchups with the Raptors during the regular season.

ABOUT THE RAPTORS: Toronto figures to have a big advantage when the teams go to their benches, and the Raptors' reserves were given a big boost with the return of guard Fred VanVleet for Game 6 against Washington. "He just keeps us all calm out there, even when things are not going right," fellow reserve Pascal Siakam told reporters of VanVleet, who missed four games in the series due to a shoulder injury. "He just controls the tempo. We just have a cool factor when he's there." Cleveland knows all about VanVleet's ability to provide a spark, as the second-year pro averaged 15.7 points and five assists in 25.3 minutes off the bench against the Cavaliers this season.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Cavaliers won two regular-season matchups with the Raptors at home by a total of nine points and lost in their one visit to Toronto by 34.

2. C Kevin Love (11.4) was the only other Cleveland player to average in double digits in scoring in the first round, but he shot 33 percent from the floor.

3. Raptors PG Kyle Lowry averaged 19.8 points on 50.9 percent shooting - including 15-of-27 from 3-point range - over the final four games of the series with Washington.

PREDICTION: Raptors 111, Cavaliers 104